Unshackled
by HaleMcCkenna22
Summary: Derek is Fifteen when he's convicted of killing his family. John Stilinski is a prison guard who's not shore he's guilty.


**A/N I don't own Teen Wolf. So I know that the Prison terms are not all right, but this story is more about the emotional growth of the charters. Derek may seem alittle meek in this first chapter, but he'll change as the story goes on. Read and Review! **

"Guilty!"

Mr. Whittemore his attorney told Derek that he passed out after they read the verdict. When he came to his was laying on the floor one the guard led him to court is hovering over him. It's the nicer guard who let him sit in the hall without the cuffs on. Once he had even given Derek half of the sandwich his wife made, it made Derek think of his mothers. Laying on the floor now with the guards who brow was wrinkled in what Derek might almost confuse for concern, if Derek hadn't just been convicted of murder. Derek tried to sit up, but the guard gently pushed him down.

"Just stay down son." the guard said softly.

Derek stilled no one had called him son in months.

The guard didn't remove his hand from his shoulder until the doctor said he was alright, and even though Derek knew it was to keep him in check it was oddly comforting. They let Mr. Whittemore see him one last time before the put on the cuffs.

"You'll be fine Derek," Mr. Whittemore said.

Derek noticed he didn't mention the appeal, but part of him had expected Mr. Whittemore was an expensive attorney he had represented Derek because he had been a friend of his fathers. Mr. Whittemore had told him what would happen if he was convicted, but reality was too much to bear. The shackles were attached to his ankles a chain was then held to the cuffs making his arms heavy. He felt like he was hog tied unable to move because of the chains, and a guard on earthier side. They took him out the back, but Derek still heard the cry of reporters, but he kept his head down refusing to look up. The guards rushed him into back of the van, and then they speed away.

"You're being tried as an adult, so you'll be in an adult prison Derek," Mr. Whittemore had said.

Derek had nodded trying to remain impassive and strong, but now sitting in the back of the van he felt his breathe hitch, and his eyes become wet. He tried to reach up to whip them away, but his chuffs wouldn't allow him touch his face. Derek gave a strangled sigh of frustration, and the guard in the passenger seat looked back at him in the rearview mirror, but didn't say anything. Derek assumed he was still in shock because he hadn't had a complete meltdown yet Twenty-five years in prison would make anyone crazy.

There was no windows in the back so Derek didn't see the large imposing prison with the watch tower, and for Derek's sanity that was probably for the best. When the guards hauled Derek from the van his knees started to buckle, but they dragged him up the steps to the rest of his life behind bars.

(:::)

John Stilinski liked to think that he could distance himself from his work, but the Hale trail had gotten in his head, and he couldn't get it out. The entire Hale family had been burned alive in the wee hours of the morning, and the youngest son was arrested for the crime.

When John had been told that he was escorting the Hale boy he had expected to see to an angry loner, and was instead met by a hansom boy in a letterman jacket. Derek looked like the type of kid who would deliver his paper, and he was unflinchingly polite even while handcuffed. A few weeks into the trail John had made his first mistake. Derek was sitting on the bench outside the courtroom in stiff suit that made him look like a child playing dress up, and John couldn't help but think of Stiles. In an act of compassion he uncuffed the boy.

"Thank you," Derek said rolling his wrist.

John had given a gruff nod.

When they read the verdict John found himself holding a teenage convicted murder in his arms. When they arrived at federal prison the boy had tear stains on his cheeks. When they put the boy in holding cell John couldn't help, but speak to him.

"Hale do you know what's happening?" John asked quietly.

Derek nodded he was shaking slightly, the chains attached to his cuffs clanking.

"They're going to process you, which means you'll strip and given your new cloths. Then they're going to keep you on suicide watch for tonight, and then you'll be put in general population," John said.

Derek was still pale, but he was listening attentively which John took a good sign that he had a will to live.

"Just do what they say, and keep your head down," John said.

John turned away from the cell suddenly very glade his shift was over, but then he heard a soft voice call him back.

"Sir," Derek said softly, "could you maybe see how my Uncle is doing? No one would tell me…"

Stilinski bristled the overwhelming feeling that this wasn't the question of a guilty boy who would murder his entire family, but a scared kid who wanted to know how his last living relative was.

"I'll see what I could do," John said.

Some tension left Derek's shoulders as he nodded gratefully. On his way home John allowed himself to think what had been in the back of his brain for weeks _Derek Hale was innocent_. 


End file.
